


Fireworks

by ice_bear_wants_a_latte



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/F, Fireworks, Fourth of July, M/M, One Shot, Parades, accidental injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-04
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-11-23 04:27:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11395335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ice_bear_wants_a_latte/pseuds/ice_bear_wants_a_latte
Summary: After so many "accidental" meetings, Percy demands Jason repay him by taking him to see the fireworks.





	Fireworks

“Oh my god. Did it have to be the hottest day in summer today? Of all days?!” Leo flopped on top of the float as they waited for the parade to begin.

“Stop being such a drama queen Valdez. We already have one on the float, we don’t need another.” Piper winked at her half-sister.

“Right back at you McLean.” Drew shot back. 

“Is Jason still not here yet?! The parade starts in two minutes!” Annabeth came jogging from the front of the line. 

“Calm down Chase. Jason will be here on time. He’s not one to be late.” Reyna slipped an arm around her girlfriend and pressed a kiss to her temple to calm her nerves.

“He’s already late! He should’ve been here a half an hour ago!”

“He’ll be here.” Reyna repeated, and sure enough, twenty seconds later they all saw Jason’s familiar jacket headed towards them from down the street.

“How the fuck does he wear that in this heat?”

“Valdez, aren’t you from Texas? Shouldn’t you be used to this heat?” Drew raised an eyebrow.

“That’s a misconception. It depends where you live. Texas is very big you know.” He laid back down and waited for Jason to arrive.

“So where did you live?”

“That’s not important. What is important is that it’s hot as balls out here and he’s going to die from heat stroke.”

“I didn’t realize you cared so much Valdez.” Jason chuckled as he approached the float. Leo sat up and placed a hand on Jason’s shoulder, looking him seriously in the eye.

“Bro, if I didn’t have you in my life, I would’ve never passed Algebra.” 

“I’m glad I could be of assistance.” Jason shoved Leo’s hand away and turned towards Annabeth. “I’m so sorry I’m late. Thalia kept me up late last night setting off fireworks-”

“Buy some ear plugs next year. Out of all these losers, I was counting on you to not be late.” Half the group erupted in protests but a commotion in front of the line, signaled the beginning of the parade, and everyone put the argument on hold to rush to their places.

. . .

Jason absolutely loved being in parades, especially when he got to toss candy and toys to the crowd, because he loved watching groups of children lit up when sweet treats rained down upon them. It was his third-year riding on this float, a pair of giant theatre masks, promoting the theater Jason and his friends had been a part of for several years. It had taken a lot of cajoling the director, Mr. D, to let them even enter the parade, and now they were experts at it. Mr. D had even offered to drive the truck this year so they could all ride on the float in the most ridiculous costumes they could find, rummaging through the costume room. Jason had selected a cringe-worthy super hero outfit, as an inside joke, and made dramatic poses when he wasn’t throwing candy. As they were headed down the street Jason noticed the cutest little girl he’d seen so far, grinning the widest, biggest grin, and twirling around in excitement. Jason watched as she tugged someone’s hand and pointed up, and the person obliged her. That’s when Jason noticed the cutest guy he’d seen so far. The young man had placed the little girl up on his shoulders so she could have a better view. Jason became distracted by the guys sea green eyes, and windswept black hair that Piper, dressed as an ancient Greek goddess, had to nudge him several times to get his attention.

“Dude, you just missed a huge group of kids. I had to quick dish back some of my candy at them.”

“Sorry,” Jason muttered, giving her a hand full of his candy to make up for it. The cute pair were still coming up and Jason planned on giving them a few extra pieces of candy. Jason later blamed it on the heat, a convenient excuse, for why he acted so irrationally. But at the time it seemed perfectly logical. The little girl was up high, so he’d toss the candy directly to her. Instead he tossed the candy directly into the young man’s face. Jason cringed as a pretty solid sucker flew right into his eye. Fortunately, the guy managed to not drop the little girl, and Jason nearly jumped off the float to go and assist. Instead he shouted his apologies, and tossed an extra-large handful of candy, this time at their feet. He felt a little less bad when the little girl waved at him and the guy managed a slight smile, still squinting, and waved as well. His friends where half gawking at him, and half struggling not to laugh, and Jason put the rest of his focus into throwing treats at groups that looked in need of some sugar.

. . .

At the end of the parade Jason found himself permanently blushing, as his friends wouldn’t stop teasing him about the incident.

“Come on guys. Can we please put it behind us?” He begged for the millionth time. Mr. D was taking the truck back to the theater, having already dropped of the float at the park where the festival was. They’d be using it as a stage to perform small skits and improv bits, and letting children take part in some of the fun to promote their summer theatre camp for kids. 

“No way! You fricking hit someone in the face! That’s like parade 101! Not even kids throw candy at faces!” Leo sniggered. 

“It was an accident! I wasn’t thinking!” 

“Obviously.” Reyna commented but they did drop the subject. 

“Has anyone seen my batman mask?” Dakota asked, dressed already in the rest of his outfit. They had a half an hour to get ready before the festival officially opened, so Leo, their tech guy, went on a food run. 

“Oh my god you guys. You are never going to believe who I saw at the bouncy castle wonderland.” Leo dumped his bags of food truck snacks on the float. Curious, they all looked at him. “The guy Jason pelted with candy!” They erupted at once, Jason being the loudest, protesting that he did not pelt the guy with candy. “Yeah, and he had the little girl with him, plus an older couple. He looked fine though so you don’t have to worry about any lawsuits.” 

“Please tell be you didn’t say anything to him.” Jason pleaded, already knowing the answer, but praying to the gods to let him be wrong. 

“Jason, Jason. You should know me better than that. I gave them an invitation to front row seats. And promised we’d call they little girl up on stage if she was interested.” Jason groaned. 

“Hey, I think I see them now!” Drew called out and they all, even Jason, snapped their heads in the direction she was pointing. 

“Fuck.” Jason hissed and his friends, the traitors, laughed at him. 

“Relax Grace. It’ll give you a chance to really apologize. Then maybe you’ll stop beating yourself up over it.” Annabeth patted her arm, and walked away to continue getting ready, the rest of the following suit. Jason hesitated a moment longer, staring at the pretty face he’d seen earlier and feeling his mind slip into a peaceful lull. Piper once again snapped him out of it by dragging him behind the float to prepare for their first skit. Jason took deep breaths and prayed to whatever deity was out there to keep him from messing up if he was that face in the crowd. It must have worked because Jason didn’t even stumble when he made eye contact with those beautiful eyes, though he could feel his face heat up. After Jason had finished his skit with Piper and Drew, he splashed cold water on his face, hoping to take away some of the redness. 

“You know hon, he didn’t look upset at all. In fact, I think he couldn’t take his eyes off you.” Drew smiled sweetly at him. Piper rolled her eyes but nodded in agreement. 

“He did seem like he was checking you out.” 

“Oh my god, please don’t. This situation is already bad enough as it is.” 

“What? I thought you’d enjoy knowing that it isn’t just you that gawks when they see a pretty face.” Jason groaned and Piper patted him on the back. Jason wasn’t in the next two skits but he aided with the stage effects they could manage to do. He was, however in the last two skits, and when the final one came to a close, all of them were supposed to mingle with the crowd. Jason did his best to avoid the young man, and his friends did their best to nudge him in that direction. Jason had managed to strike up a conversation with an older gentleman when a particularly strong gust of wind knocked his already-lopsided hat off his head. He didn’t register the voice say ‘I’ll get it’ until it was too late, and bent down to pick it up, bashing his head against someone else’s and sending them both to the ground. After Jason got his bearing, he looked to see who he’d crashed into and curse his luck. 

“Oh god, I’m so sorry! I didn’t hear you, I mean I did but I didn’t think, I mean, oh god I’m sorry. Are you okay?” Jason gushed and the guy chuckled and accepted Jason’s held out hand to help him up. 

“Yeah I’m fine. Just a bit stunned. Are you okay?” And oh god his voice was like a siren’s music, and Jason was a total sap. 

“I’m fine. I’m sorry I hurt you . . . again.” Jason winced but the guy grinned and Jason’s decided he really liked the guy’s smile. 

“No problem. My sister was delighted by the extra candy so I should really be thanking you.” 

“Your sister?” just then the adorable little girl from the parade came bouncing up, tugging an older man’s hand. 

“Percy, Percy! Did you see the princess?! I wanna see the princess!” 

“No, but I bet my new friend here knows where to find her?” The young man, Percy, asked with a raise of a brow. Jason nodded and led the family over to Annabeth. 

“Wow! You’re so pretty! Your hair is just like a princess!” Percy’s little sister ran up to Annabeth and gave her a hug. Jason was glad to see her just roll with it. 

“Sorry. She has absolutely no stranger danger.” Percy apologized. They had stepped a bit away from Annabeth and Percy’s family. 

“No problem at all. Annabeth loves kids.” That was partially true. Annabeth loved smart kids. 

“Well thanks anyway. My name’s Percy by the way, in case you didn’t catch that earlier.” Percy chuckled and Jason joined him. His little sister did have impressive volume for a tiny body. 

“My name’s Jason.” Percy nodded and they got into a polite conversation about Jason’s theater and Percy promised to check it out sometime. Jason was enjoying talking to him and was disappointed when the cute bundle of energy tugged Percy’s hand away to go get her face painted. The older lady took Percy’s other arm and Jason wasn’t sure what she said but he heard Percy moan, “Mom!” and glance back at him. Jason waved a goodbye and Percy, who’s hands were both occupied, gave him a wide smile. 

“Was that a love-sick sigh I heard as your beloved walked away?” 

“Shove it Valdez.” Jason shoved his friend but couldn’t help the grin creeping up on his face. Jason couldn’t stop thinking about Percy for the rest of the day, and couldn’t believe he was acting like a hormonal teenager about a guy he’d only met barely twice, and only because he’d hit him in the eye with candy.

. . .

As they crept out of the afternoon and into the evening, they packed up everything onto the float, and Mr. D arrived to take the trailer back to the theater. Jason and his friends headed to the other side of the park where the carnival was taking place, and Jason spent way more money on tickets than he should have, but he was a sucker for carnival games. He’d just lost to Annabeth over a game of ring toss when he spotted one of his favourite games, knocking down milk bottles with a baseball. When he was younger, his older sister had always rocked this game, while he couldn’t even seem to throw far enough. Then Jason got muscles and a pair of glasses and he beat Thalia every time. Sure enough, his first few balls flew straight through the middle bottle and sent all of them crashing to the ground. Just as he swung his forth ball back, he heard someone call out his name and his concentration slipped, along with the ball, sending it flying at the person who’d called out to him. Jason nearly screamed when he saw who it was.

“Percy! Oh my god, are you okay?!” Jason helps Percy sit up and when Percy pulls his hand away from his eye Jason nearly swore. Percy was going to have a black eye for sure.

“Baseballs hurt so much worse than candy.” Jason took it as a good sign that Percy was okay enough to crack a joke.

“I’m so, so sorry. I don’t know what’s gotten into me today.” Jason didn’t know what to do except apologize.

“It’s fine Jason. Though I do think you owe me some ice cream now.”

“Are you going to put it on your eye?” Jason asked confused. Percy raised an eyebrow and chuckled.

“As good as I’m sure that would feel, no. I’m hungry, and unlike last time, I can’t eat the thing that hit me in the eye.” Jason forced an embarrassed laugh and helped Percy to his feet. His friends had abandoned him though he’d seen them holding in laughs as they’d walked away.

“Well then I’d be glad to buy you some ice cream. It’d be the least I could do.” Despite Percy’s black eye, they had a pleasant conversation as they walked to the food vendors. Jason ordered a plain chocolate and vanilla twist, but Percy ordered some type of blue ice cream. “What flavour is that?” Jason asked and Percy shrugged.

“I don’t know. I just have this thing about blue foods.”

“I’ll remember that.” Jason said without thinking, until Percy smirked, slightly blushing. “I don’t know why I said that. Sorry that was-”

“Okay. I wouldn’t mind meeting up with you again.”

“Yeah?” Jason asked, relieved.

“How about fireworks tonight? I’ve got to go back and meet up with my family but we could watch somewhere on the beach.”

“Sounds great.” Jason couldn’t help his spreading grin, one that Percy mirrored.

“Great! My family always sits on the north side, just down from Pa John’s Fry Shop. Do you know it?”

“No, but I’ll find it.”

“Then we’ll meet up there. Say nine o’clock?” Jason nodded, “I’ve got to get going, but I better see you there. You definitely owe me.” Jason was embarrassed but his smile was genuine as he waved goodbye.

. . .

Nine o’clock rolled around and Jason found the Fry Shop easily enough. He spotted Percy a minute after he’d arrived and winced when he saw Percy’s eye.

“No more apologies.” Percy stopped him before he could even start. “If you still feel bad, you can buy me more food.” Jason agreed, and they shared a large fry as they walked down the beach to find a good spot. Jason felt his heart race sitting next to a cute guy, on the beach, watching the sunset, and waiting for fireworks to start. Percy seemed to feel the same way because Jason noticed a faint pink on Percy’s cheeks. They talked about life having moved past all other polite conversation. Percy was telling Jason a story about how he’d accidentally gotten a black eye from his friend Grover and so it wasn’t hard to not hold a grudge against Jason. After a moment Jason reached up to touch the bruise around Percy’s eye.

“At least when it turns green it’ll bring out your eyes.” It slipped out of his mouth before Jason could really think about it and Percy was snorting he was laughing so hard.

“And here I was thinking you couldn’t flirt.” Percy guffawed.

“Not when it’s with someone cute.” Jason answered honestly. He still hadn’t removed his hand from Percy’s face. “I’m not very good with words.”

“I guess you’re more of an action kinda guy.” Percy’s voice had become soft.

“You guessed right.” And in a moment of confidence, Jason slipped his hand down to Percy’s chin and tilted it up to press a kiss to his lips. And just like a cheesy rom-com, the fireworks began to explode in bright colors overhead.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Fourth of July!


End file.
